1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates to telecommunication systems and, more particularly, to a system and method of updating radio network data in Internet Protocol (IP) Base Stations.
2. Description of Related Art
When system updates are performed in a radio telecommunications network, they often require that individual devices in the network's Base Stations (BSs) be updated to transmit new information over the air interface to mobile stations (MSs) operating in the service area of the network. Radio network data is sent from Mobile Switching Centers (MSCs) in the network to the BSs where the data is used to update a variety of BS devices performing different functions. For example, data may be sent to update Digital Control Channel (DCCH) devices and Digital Traffic Channel (DTC) devices. The term “devices” generally refers to the software that controls hardware devices such as transceivers, signal strength receivers, location verification modules, and so on. “Updates” may refer to radio network data updates or software updates to provide new device functionality. For example, a radio network data update may provide a channel number to a particular device. A software update may change the functionality of a device from a DTC device to a DCCH device in the event of a DCCH failure.
Some of the network data may be applicable at the cell level, and thus are applicable to all of the devices of a particular type in only a single BS. At other times, the network data may be applicable at the exchange level, and thus are applicable to all of the devices of a particular type in all of the BSs in the network. The current method of updating device data at the cell level or exchange level involves sending a separate message from the MSC to each device to be updated. Since each BS has multiple DCCHs and DTCs, many duplicate messages containing the same information are sent to the BS devices. For example, whenever the power-down registration status in the network is changed, one message is sent to each DCCH in the network. There may be up to 8 DCCHs per BS, and it is not unusual to have approximately 400 BSs in a typical network. Thus, a total of 3200 messages are required for the update.
The existing method obviously consumes a lot of processor time to send the messages, and consumes much of the signaling capacity between the MSCs and the BSs. It would be advantageous to have a system and method of updating radio network data that reduces the number of messages required, thereby reducing the processor load and signaling load on the network. The present invention provides such a system and method.